


Demon Days

by Souless_Robot



Series: Yugioh Au-gust [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: AU-gust 2020, Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Angel Joey Wheeler, Demon Seto Kaiba, Enemies to Lovers, Fallen Angel Seto Kaiba, Good Omens AU, M/M, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25919644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Souless_Robot/pseuds/Souless_Robot
Summary: Joey never meant to be permanently assigned to earth after the events that take place in the Garden of Eden. Still, now that he is he really wishes he would stop running into his least favorite demon. Unfortunately, it seems the creator has other plans.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Yugioh Au-gust [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862191
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45
Collections: AUgust 2020





	Demon Days

**Author's Note:**

> For the Au-gust prompt Angels and Demons AU! This ended up getting a little more philosophical than I intended for what I wanted to be a light humor based prompt but what can you do?

It starts as all things do with the Garden of Eden. Jophiel is doing a favor for Aziraphale. The poor dear hadn’t gotten a day off from guarding the gate for nearly a century and Jophiel was always there to help a friend in need. So here he was sitting in the garden guarding the Eastern Gate. 

All in all, it was a rather boring job. 

Sometimes a particularly cute animal would wander by and Jophiel would stop to pet it. 

It’s on his third day of guarding the gate when a messenger cherub swoops down. Jophiel would recognize that mess of spikey brightly colored hair anywhere. 

“Hey, Yug what’s up?” 

The cherub’s wings flutter nervously, he looks near tears. “Have you heard?! They’re banishing the humans down to earth. They ate the forbidden fruit!” 

“What?” Jophiel snaps his wings back. That was… “What happened?”

“There was a serpent- a fallen angel. He convinced them to do it. He said knowledge was power and the divine plan was false! And now they’re going to make the humans leave.” 

It feels like Jophiel took a plunge into the anti-matter of creation. Yugi said serpent, but there was only one fallen angel he knew that transformed and Joey wouldn’t call Saleos a snake. Jophiel knows what he really is; no snake looks like that with white scaled wings. There was a certain angel that fell with Lucifer that was rather fond of dragons though. Jophiel rubbed his head. He thought he was done having to put up with Saleos when the former angel decided to saunter out of heaven and take charge of Lucifer's army. Now Saleos wasn't even here and he was still making Yugi cry. 

In Jophiel’s opinion, Saleos was created a little crooked and he was the angel of wisdom, understanding, and judgment so his opinion really ought to count. Sure he looked beautiful with his dark brown hair and sparkling eyes but all angels looked like that. Jophiel always thought his obsession with dragons and bossy nature was a bit much. Not to mention he remembered how the fallen angel liked to tug at his primary feathers in flight school. It didn’t shock him when the other angel left. 

“-phiel. Jophiel did you hear me?” Yugi asked, waving his hand frantically in front of his face. 

“Sorry, Yug just thinking. What did you say?” 

“The humans will be here soon and it’s your job to escort them out of the eastern gate to earth.”

“Right.” Jophiel grimaced as he ran a hand through his blond hair. He would make sure they made it there safe and sound. 

Yugi gives him a quick hug and then is back in the air off to tell another angel the news. He watches him disappear into the clouds. 

Soon Adam and Eve step out of the forest. They look bewildered like they can’t quite take in everything. They’re covered in leaves he’s never seen the couple wear before. Eve has a hand gently bracing her growing belly. She’s pregnant. 

Jophiel does what it’s in his nature to do, he looks at them, understands, judges, and hands the frail human couple Aziraphale’s flaming sword as he gently pushes them towards the gate. 

The humans leave the garden and head off into the unknown. It gets so cold out on earth and there are so many frightful things. The humans will need fire. 

* * *

The angel council didn’t agree with his logic. 

Gabriel shakes his head and tells him they’ll be reassigning him to an earthside mission for a while. For a while, it turned out means millennia. Jophiel really doesn’t mind. Heaven’s council gives him vague instructions to bring light to humankind. He has to wonder if their phrasing was intentional given his actions that landed him on earth. Probably not, most angels didn’t have much in the way for humor with all that righteousness in there. 

Still, Jophiel likes humans; they’re so interesting and they have so much potential. He does a miracle here and there always pushing humans in the right direction and acting as heaven’s agent here on earth. 

Somewhere along the line, Jophiel drops his god-given name. It’s a mouthful and humans can never get the Enochian quite right. Joey, now there’s a friendly name. 

It’s so much easier when he walks into a situation to talk to some sinner out of a terrible decision when he greets them with a ‘Hi pal name’s Joey.’ 

Now, well he’s pretty sure they’ve forgotten him down here. Still, he sends his reports to heaven like clockwork every couple of years. They leave him to work and Joey does. He misses Yugi though. 

* * *

The first time he runs into Saleos is in ancient Egypt during the Pharaoh Atem’s reign. Joey is there to try and reform slavery, the new Pharoh is young and impressionable but he can tell he has a good heart. He reminds Joey of Yugi somehow and that makes the angel feel a little less lonely. So far Atem has been seriously considering his plans to release slaves and restructure the Egyptian economy. 

Still, it’s a shock when he walks into one of the Pharoh’s banquets and sees a tall figure looming over the crowd, a wine glass in his hand. It’s Saleos he’s dressed to the top in golden jewelry and dyed robes. He looks like he’s walked right out of the richest recesses of Egyptian nobility. Joey looks down at his own dusty white tunic and has never felt more out of place as an immortal being. 

The momentary discomfort gives way to righteous anger as Joey stomps right up to the demon and hisses out, “What in heaven’s name are you doing here!?”

Saleos smirks and takes a sip of wine, “I’m on vacation. Is that a crime in heaven now too?”

“Yes!” Joey can feel his wings bristle in irritation as he looks into the demon’s kohl accented face. It made features ephemeral. A fallen angel had no right to be this pretty! “This violates the great treaty of non-interference. Heaven could declare war over this!”

The demon rolls his eyes and takes another drink, “Yet here you are. I suppose Hell could declare war as well.” 

“That- that’s different!”

“Oh, Jophiel,” Saleos says his lips peeling back to show his sharp teeth, “Please explain to me heaven’s twisted hypocrisy.”

It was so strange to hear his real name on someone’s lips again, “Well- err- I… I’m on assignment. I've been down here since before the treaty right after the garden. And it’s Joey. I go by Joey now.”

Saleos pulls a face, “Joey, how disgusting.” Joey hisses and considers trying to smite the demon, he could do it… probably… maybe. Well actually probably not Saleos even as an angel had far outranked him in heaven’s hierarchy and it’s not like fallen angels lose their juice. Still, it might be worth the inevitable fall out to see the demon’s face when he tried it. 

“If you were going to pick a name as a disguise you should have picked something more refined as I did. I go by Seto now.”

“Seto?” The name sounds foreign even on his lips. It’s not a name common to Egypt. Joey frowns. “It doesn’t matter you need to go back to hell! I can only imagine what you’re trying to pull in this court.” 

The demon’s lips twitch up, “That’s for me to know and for you to find out feather-brain.”

* * *

Joey does find out as the great library of Alexandria burns. Joey cries he can’t help it. All that knowledge lost and humans were just starting to bring light back to one another. He swears the next time he sees the demon bastard he’s going to smite him. This is unforgivable. 

Things only escalate from there every fifty years or so Seto seems to make a point of coming across his path and messing up his mission. He starts wars. He helps mad kings. Sometimes he’ll intentionally twist the individuals' Joey has been helping specifically into making the wrong choice. He always does it with a smile. 

Joey’s words get harsher and their fights get longer. Seto seems to enjoy them. Joey does try to smite him once after the black plague. He spends days sitting beside children as they die in agony. 

Seto appears in the doorway after they finally pass into the afterlife. He’s wearing the harsh black outfit of a plague doctor. There’s a crooked grin on his face as he steps inside.

Joey let’s go of the child’s still warm hand. He’s crying. He can feel the tears slip off his chin and disappear into nothing. Angels weren’t made to cry. 

“Why do you keep doing this?” His voice cracks. 

“I’m not doing this. Humans do this to themselves. Can’t you see Jophiel? There’s nothing redeeming about any of them. I don’t understand why you keep wasting your time-” 

Joey’s wings flap as he hurls himself across the room and lets into the demon. His hands coming up to shove the demon to the floor. He can feel his hands warm as the light of their creator presses between them. He wants to discorporate Seto. 

Seto’s eyes widen as he seems to realize that Joey is serious. 

“They’re alive! Godamnit! They’re alive and they try to be better and then you and hell- you never give them a break you always drag them back!” 

The demon’s face contorts in anger and he flares his own wings out using the force to shove up and reverse their positions as Joey finds himself firmly pinned under the demon’s body. 

“Is that what you think? I already told you I don’t do this. You think I’m responsible for this disease. I bet it’s easier for you to just accept the heaven given propaganda. We gave humans a choice. All we’ve ever done was give them a choice so that they weren’t just mindless dolls.” Seto’s eyes are narrowed as he hisses out the last part, “Are you such an idiot that you can’t even recognize that heaven doesn’t care?” 

Joey struggles and tries to buck the demon off. He’s too angry to care. Anger is a sin but he can’t stop himself, “You're the idiot!”

The demon looming over him rolls his eyes, “Jophiel you’ve been forgotten down here. They cast you out and you don’t even realize it. When was the last time you’ve heard from heaven?”

Joey’s silent. He knows the answer. He doesn’t want to say it. That would mean admitting something. The last time he heard from heaven was when the council gave him their decision for helping Adam and Eve out of the gardens. 

“That’s what I thought. Heaven hasn’t represented the creator in eons. It’s an apathetic place that is only concerned with holding up order at the cost of everything else. If heaven cared this plague would never have happened.”

Joey feels his tears start up again. He can’t stop the little hiccuping sobs that accompany them. 

“If I let you up will you stop trying to smite me? It’s annoying.” Joey nods he doesn’t have the energy to try again anyways and then looks away. He doesn’t want to let the demon see him breaking down. 

“You do realize this doesn’t have to change anything. You can keep doing what you’ve always done to help humans.”

“What are you saying?”

The demon shrugs and rolls off of Joey standing as he rolls his shoulders back and stretches his wings, “Just because heaven is apathetic doesn’t mean you have to be. Also, I suppose I am proposing a truce.”

Joey can’t help but laugh. A truce between an angel and a demon? Between Saleos and him? 

“A truce? But why would you want to do that?”

Seto shakes his head a small unfamiliar smile finding its way to his face. It seems more genuine than most of the expressions the demon wears. “Hell is boring and lonely. Half the other demons are small-minded, many stopped carrying since the fall. There’s only a handful that even remembers why we broke away from heaven. You are many things Jophiel but boring isn’t one of them.” 

“What exactly would be the terms?”

“You keep me preoccupied and amused and I’ll ensure that none of hell's forces come up and interfere with your precious humans.” 

That was.. well- Saleos was a duke of hell and in charge of hell’s army. He could probably actually do that. But, would he?

Joey narrowed his eyes, “How do I know you’ll actually do your part?” 

The demon smiled with his teeth, “I suppose you’ll have to trust me.” 

* * *

Joey crashed through the front door not even bothering to straighten his feathers as he found a familiar demon lounging across his couch, “Kaiba you bastard I can’t believe you set the like button out on the world! Zuckerberg is a monster!” 

The demon gave him a wry smile, “You know Joey I wouldn’t have to keep doing this if you provided some entertainment.” 

“That’s a lie!” Joey accused, blushing, he wasn’t sure he liked the look in the demon’s eyes, “You’re a workaholic. You created the concept of a workaholic and released that on human society as well! How am I supposed to combat that?”

“Perhaps you should try harder. You are supposed to be the angel of wisdom after all.” 

Joey spluttered as the demon moved past him to the kitchen and returned, pressing a warm cup of tea into his hands. 

“Here maybe this will help you think.” 


End file.
